Using Claude Romano’s ‘evential phenomenology’ to reflect on moments of grace and hope during the pandemic

ABSTRACT

Drawn from a wider study investigating the way people in Christian faith communities in Melbourne Australia experienced hope, grace and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper utilises Claude Romano’s notion of evential phenomenology to explore the lived experiences of three focus group participants in 2022. The phenomenological interpretation found that grace and hope were experienced as events, the significance of which were understood only after they had occurred. These events offered possibilities and opened up new worlds for these participants that provided grace, and which gave them hope for the future. Some tentative recommendations are offered in light of the interpretation.

KEYWORDS:

• Grace
• hope
• Claude Romano
• evential phenomenology

Introduction

It is well documented that the city of Melbourne in Australia endured one of the longest and severest lockdowns during the Coronavirus pandemic, experiencing a cumulative 262 days under stay-at-home directives with travel restricted to a five-kilometre radius (Jose 2021). During this time, members of Christian faith communities were also impacted, having to gather online via platforms such as Zoom for Church services, or find alternative ways to individually nurture faith.

Using a phenomenological framework, and drawn from the authors’ wider research exploring ways in which members of Christian church communities in Melbourne experienced hope, grace, and resilience during the pandemic (Hyde and Joseph 2022; Joseph and Hyde 2022) this paper reflects on the responses of three participants who formed part of a focus group interview regarding two questions: ‘When did you experience grace during the pandemic?’ and ‘When did you experience hope during the pandemic?’ While the authors have previously utilised phenomenology more generally to reflect on the lived experiences of other participants in this project (Hyde and Joseph 2023), in this paper Claude Romano’s notion of ‘evential phenomenology’ is utilised as an insight cultivator to provide an interpretation of the lived experiences of these three participants as expressed during a focus group interview. Our findings show that that grace and hope were experienced as events, the significance of which were understood only after they had occurred – that is, in their latency. These events offered possibilities and opened up new worlds for these participants that provided grace, and which gave them hope for the future. Some tentative recommendations are offered in light of the interpretation.

Conceptual framing

Grace

Grace refers to God’s self-gift to human beings which transforms the lives of people and their experiences (Emmons et al. 2017). Emanating from a cluster of Hebrew words – hesed, hanan, and raham, as well as from the Greek word charis (χάρις) (Schillebeeckx 1983), the gift of grace is free and unmerited. Rahner (1968) maintains that not only is grace a gift that is freely given, but that it is also in plentiful supply, for ‘just because grace is free and unmerited this does not mean that it is rare (theology has been led astray for too long already by the tacit assumption that grace would no longer be grace if God became too free with it)’ (31). Further, Pope Francis (2018) reiterates that grace is always an act of God’s initiative. It is God who reaches out to humankind with this gift, ‘born of his [God’s] loving initiative’ (Pope Francis 2018, par. 54).

This suggests that grace is a free and unmerited gift that human beings have already received. It does not have to be earned or worked for, nor it is given only to those who are deemed to ‘deserve’ it (Rahner 1968). Once its presence is recognised by people, grace has the capacity to enhance and improve human flourishing in profound ways (Emmons et al. 2017).

In the Protestant traditions, grace is chiefly an action of God but can also be exhibited between persons. In this way grace is a display of ‘kindness, generosity, or mercy to someone who is undeserving and potentially incapable of returning the kindness shown’ (Bufford, Sisemore, and Blackburn 2017, 57). The Reformed Protestant traditions have differentiated between God’s ‘special grace’ and ‘common grace’. God’s special grace designates the exceptional mercies of God to people (Bufford, Sisemore, and Blackburn 2017). It is grace because it is kindness shown to the undeserving who cannot repay in-kind, whereas common grace is an unrepayable generosity by God to the unworthy but is graciously shown by God to all people, not only an elect few. The concept of common grace draws from the idea that God ‘makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous’ (Matthew 5:45 NRSV). Hence grace can be understood to exemplify the ‘common grace’ given in positive human attitudes towards themselves and others (Bufford, Sisemore, and Blackburn 2017, 67).

Bassett et al. (2020) maintain there are three Wesleyan traditions of grace: prevenient (the full extent of evil in the world), justifying (the gift offered to all humans in Jesus Christ), and sanctifying grace (the perfect love that spurs the Christian onward in their present process of perfection). Compared to Protestant thought, there are three facets of the Catholic notion of divine grace. Primarily grace is the free and underserved gift that God ‘makes to us’ through the Holy Spirit (The Holy See 1994, par. 2023). This sanctifies human beings so that they share in the divine nature and eternal life. Secondly, Catholics receive and participate in God’s grace tangibly in the Sacraments and third, through good works (Harwood et al. 2021). In Baptism, one receives the sanctifying grace of Christ. Such grace becomes the means of the work of sanctification, bolstered through the grace of other sacraments, including the Eucharist, Confirmation, and Reconciliation.

Ignatian spirituality is underpinned by a theology of grace in which God can be found in all things. God is active in the world, and it was the conviction of Ignatius, therefore, that prayer and action are grounded in grace (Coghlan 2004). It is grace that helps people to make appropriate choices on which to act. Knowledge and action are organically connected. Knowledge is generated through reflection in and on action, and it is God’s grace that guides this process.

During the pandemic, God’s grace was experienced in many places. The scriptures were a source of God’s grace. Others recognised God’s grace in the Sacraments administered by virtual means (Boaheng 2021). Others identified God as the only true source of hope in the crisis with religious communities of faith prayerfully associating divine grace during the pandemic (Seryczynska et al. 2021, 75). Still others found divine grace in the ‘ordinary graces’ of toilet paper, gardens, and home baking (Fullam 2021, 65), others experienced God’s grace in compelling and different ways that provide a sense of hope, that positively impacts on wellbeing (Harwood et al. 2021). It is a gift that enables people to experience positive life changes and to enhance their interactions with others (Judd, Dyer, and Top 2020).

Hope

Theologically, faith-based hope is positioned as an external locus-of-hope, and includes external-family, external-peer, and external-spiritual hope relations (Bernardo and Mendoza 2021). For individuals, hope enables the examination of sources of personal strength in relation to the future, and in relation to hoped-for outcomes that will positively impact on those individuals (Braun-Lewensohn, Abu-Kaf, and Kalagy 2021). While some people may respond with despair if their hoped-for outcomes are not realised, others are able to respond with great resilience, and continue in hopefulness in spite of the detrimental circumstances that may prevail (Sain 2020).

Hope is closely aligned with religious history and can be seen in both the Old and New Testaments in scripture (Elliott 2020). While hope in God is evident in the many stories and accounts that comprise the books of the Old Testament, it culminates in the Paschal Mystery – in the Resurrection of Christ, ‘inspiring the belief that nothing – not even death – could prevent the ultimate triumph of good over evil’ (Elliott 2020, 118). For believers, the Easter event provides the ultimate vindication of hope. In relation to maintaining hope in God during the pandemic, Mbwana (2021) draws explicitly on biblical history, reminding Christians to ‘look to the past, in times like these, and gather instructions on how to best navigate [their] present reality’ (18).

Methodology (phenomenology)

As a form of human science, phenomenology results in compelling insights into the lived meanings of human experience (van Manen 2014). Husserl’s (2002) original notion of phenomenology was transcendental, aiming to describe the essential meanings and structures of the phenomena being studied without imposing any preconceptions or interpretations. In other words, the essential meanings and structures of the phenomena being studied were thought to transcend the researcher’s own consciousness. Husserl’s notion of epoche-reduction was how this could be achieved, with the researcher bracketing, or putting side, prior assumptions to create an open space to observe the phenomenon as it presents itself in the experience of the researcher.

However, many phenomenologists came to realise that it is impossible for the researcher to avoid imposing preconceptions or interpretations because the researcher brings their own prior understandings to the phenomenon being studied. Thus, phenomenology almost always requires some kind of reflective interpretation on the part of the researcher, with most phenomenologists focussing on the hermeneutic, rather than the transcendental. For instance, Heidegger (1962) questioned whether knowledge was possible outside of an interpretive stance. Thus, he describes phenomenology as hermeneutic, since all that appears in lived experience requires interpretation. Similarly, Ricoeur (1983) maintains that ‘all consciousness of meaning [requires] distancing from lived experience [for] Phenomenology begins when … we interrupt experience in order to signify it’ (116).

In focussing on the hermeneutic, or interpretive nature of phenomenology, Gadamer (1989) posits a fusion of horizons. A horizon signifies the limit of everything that can be understood from a particular point of view. Understanding thus occurs when the horizon that is projected by a life expression, text, or phenomenon combines with the researcher’s own interpretive insight. Here, the aim is not for the researcher to set aside prior understandings, but rather to test them through engagement with the phenomenon being studied. The fusion of horizons results in the production of something new which is of value and insight common to both the phenomenon and the researcher.

Through a fusion of horizons, phenomenological interpretation attempts to grasp the essential insights of a phenomenon, or event. It results in the eidetic – the inceptual or originary (van Manen 2014). Inceptual thinking is not same as conceptual thinking. Rather, inceptual thinking involves grasping, or suddenly being struck by a fundamental insight. It evokes ‘the richness and uniqueness of the particularity of meaning’ (237). In this sense, phenomenology is not concerned with empirical generalisation, but rather with the singular – with the unique instance of in-seeing that provide meaning, or which illuminate the phenomenon or event. This is sometimes referred to as ‘the phenomenological example’ (259) samples of which are presented in this paper.

We have followed Heidegger’s, Gadamer’s, and van Manen’s interpretive or hermeneutic understanding of phenomenology. Recognising that it is not possible for us to set aside our prior understandings, or to bracket them, we instead aim to fuse our interpretive horizons with those of the life expressions of our participants to bring into nearness the eidetic, originary insights that illuminate the phenomenon. To achieve this, we utilise Claude Romano’s notion of evential phenomenology.

Evential phenomenology

In his seminal text, Event and World, Claude Romano (2009) argues that some phenomena are best studied as events. He employs the neologism advenant, the evential, to describe what occurs when an event is considered meaningful. Rejecting Heidegger’s characterisation of events as referring to actuality, Romano (2015) conceives of events as phenomenologically originary. They pertain not to actuality, but rather to possibility, to ‘possibilization’ (51). For instance, one may arrange to have coffee with a friend. This is the event as factum – as an actuality, or as something that happens. However, while having coffee, two friends may discuss things in a way that deeply affects them, and which they experience as meaningful. The experience of the event may leave them profoundly moved, the significance of which may only be realised afterwards, when ‘the event of an encounter has already happened, has already reconfigured all our possibilities and worlds’ (Romano 2009, 123).

Herein lies an important notion in Romano 2009, 2015) writing – that of latency. While a genuine encounter, or event, cannot be reduced to its actualisation as a fact, its significance remains latent, such that ‘we are never contemporary with it and never realise it until later, “too late” … when the event of an encounter has already happened’ (2009, 123). Accordingly, and as van Manen (2014) notes, there is a real sense in which events cannot be studied in their actuality, but rather, ‘should be grasped as evential – in their latency rather than in their factual essence’ (193).

Such an understanding also reflects Marion’s (2002) notion of the self-givenness of phenomena. The originary, or eidetic meaning of an event is to be found not so much in what may have actually happened in the event (the factuality), but rather in the how of phenomenality. The how, in this instance, pertains to the significance the event acquires in the gradual unfolding of its latency. Thus, the event ‘gives itself as lingering self-giving’ (van Manen 2014, 234).

This understanding of evential phenomenology is drawn upon as an insight cultivator in our interpretation of the phenomenological texts below. Romano’s (2009, 2015) conceptualisation provides a source, gleaned from philosophical phenomenological writing that assists in the interpretation of lived experience, helping ‘to stimulate further creative insights and understanding with respect to our phenomenon under investigation’ (van Manen 2014, 324).

Research design

The phenomenological texts below emanate from the authors’ wider research exploring ways in which members of Christian church communities in Melbourne experienced hope, grace, and resilience during the pandemic (Hyde and Joseph 2022; Joseph and Hyde 2022). Specifically, they are drawn from a focus group meeting that was held in March 2022, consisting of seven participants in our project aged between 20 and 35, and belonging to different Christian congregations. The participants were known to each other. Prior to the pandemic, they were committed Christians and regular attendees at services and prayer group meetings within their own congregations. When the COVID-19 restrictions were introduced, they set up their own faith meetings via Zoom, but largely within their own congregations. We have used pseudonyms for each of the three participants whose phenomenological texts are utilised below – Jacob, Millie and Sandra.

The focus group meeting was conducted and recorded via Zoom following the signed consent of all participants, using a semi-structured interview (Cohen, Manion, and Morrison 2018). The Zoom recording enabled us to capture the body language, facial expressions, and gestures of the participants, all of which assisted in the phenomenological process of interpretation. We were able to view the recording multiple times to capture those aspects of the focus group meeting that were thought to be of significance in the phenomenological interpretation.

The fact that we have focussed on the phenomenological texts of only three of the seven focus group participants requires justification. The aim, in phenomenological research, is not empirical generalisation, and so questions concerning the number of participants become less relevant. In fact, van Manen (2014) argues that too many participant transcripts may ‘encourage shallow reflection’ (333). The aim should rather be to ‘gather enough experientially rich accounts that make possible the figuration of powerful experiential examples or anecdotes that help to make contact with life as it is lived’ (353). We believe that the three phenomenological texts presented below, along with the insight cultivator of evential phenomenology, guide our reflection and accomplish this aim.

Findings - originary insights from the reflections on three texts utilising evential phenomenology

Three themes can be discerned from Romano’s (2015) notion of evential phenomenology that provide sources of reflection for the texts in this paper. Two of these – the temporality of the ‘too late’ and latency – are particularly evident in Jacob’s phenomenological text below, while the third – ‘possibilization’ (re-interpretation) is evident in the phenomenological texts of both Millie and Sandra. When viewed through these themes, the three phenomenological texts yield a number of originary insights, as explored below.

Jacob’s text – the temporality of the ‘too late’ and latency

The phenomenological text of one of the focus group participants, Jacob, reflected two of Romano’s (2015) evential concepts – ‘too lateness’, and latency.

Jacob indicated that ‘After our home–church had met on ‎Zoom, we would sometimes telephone each other for a chat’. He paused and sighed deeply. ‘I ‎really miss that’, he continued. ‘The encouragement we would give to one another—to “hang in ‎there”, to keep the faith—made me feel resilient. It made me feel as though I could get through ‎this and that everything would be ok’. There was a hint of melancholy in his voice—a longing ‎to reclaim an experience that had touched him deeply. An experience that, while no longer ‎needed because the lockdown had ended, was nonetheless meaningful for him, and had ‎impacted positively on his sense of wellbeing. There was also sense in which the significance of this experience for him had passed him by – that it was now too late to reclaim it. This was reflected following a brief pause, after which he continued, ‎‎‘I know it sounds a bit silly now, but there was something about those phone calls—something ‎that I wish I could re-capture now. But they did give me a sense of hope, and, looking back, I can see how I experienced God’s grace – I can name it now … I can recognise it. I don’t know why I could not see it at the time, but I recognise it now! God’s grace made me feel resilient!’

One of the key aspects of an event that is revealed in the genre of the Greek tragedy, according to Romano (2015) is ‘the temporality of the “too late”’ (7). For instance, in the legend of Oedipus, the ruler of Thebes, Creon, arrives too late to prevent Antigone from taking her own life. He is ‘the one who takes notice too late (ὀψιμαθής)’ (7). Such a phrase expresses the temporality of the event, a key feature of which is the ‘after-the-fact, of “too late”’ (8). An event reveals itself to a person only when it has already taken place. Thus, Romano maintains that it’s ‘“temporalization” can only be that of the after-the-fact’ (8).

This notion of ‘too late’, of after-the-fact, becomes apparent in Jacob’s text. The experience of home-church via Zoom and of the phone conversations that took place following it comprised an event that, while necessary because of the social restrictions that were placed on citizens, was not fully comprehended, or appreciated until it was too late. Jacob did not perceive the significance of the conversations, the words of encouragement and reassurance that everything would be alright until after these had passed him by. He did not recognise the connectedness he shared with his contemporaries during these measures of social distancing until it was too late. What is more, even though movement is much less constrained and church communities can now gather physically again, Jacob recognises that there was something significant in the Zoom experience of home-church. There was something profound shared in the conversations that followed these virtual gatherings that he now longs for but cannot be reclaimed. For him these were events in which he experienced both grace and hope. He recognises the significance of the event now, after-the-fact, but can do nothing to recapture that experience, and this saddens him deeply. The event had revealed itself to Jacob only once it had taken place. Now, he cannot do anything to recapture it. He cannot go back in time, and so the event’s temporalisation is after-the-fact.

Nevertheless, and as Romano (2015) points out, this does not mean the after-the-fact prevents someone from seeking meaning from the event itself. In fact, Romano argues that the after-the-fact does not hinder the individual’s ability to realise the significance of an event at all. Far from it. Romano maintains that the ‘too lateness’ of the event is burgeoning with possibility that does not become apparent until much later, such that its meaning ‘only gives its itself in an essential a posteriori – a “transcendental” a posteriori’ (62). Thus, the significance of an event does not make itself known until much later, and this gives rise to the notion of latency. Husserl (1973) had noted that the ‘lived experience itself … may become “forgotten”; but for all this, it in no way disappears without a trace; it has merely become latent’ (122). As latent, events are full of possibilities, and there is a sense in which people cannot truly experience an event until it has taken place. It is ‘only once we have “realised” that they happened that they truly become events, for it is “suddenly indeed” that we realise their occurrence’ (Romano 2015, 63). Thus, Romano maintains that some phenomena are best studied as events which are most effectively grasped in their latency.

Latency, and the realisation of the occurrence of an event, is evident in Jacob’s text above. Despite the ‘too lateness’, Jacob realised that through this event he had in fact already experienced hope and God’s grace (cf. Rahner 1968). This realisation, and the possibilities it offers for his present life, may have happened quite suddenly, like an epiphany, as the result of the focus group interview. Or, possibly, it occurred over time, slowly and imperceptibly, with the focus group interview providing him with an opportunity to name it. The revealing of the event in this way aligns with Heidegger’s (1982) notion of aletheia (άλήϑεια), meaning disclosure, unconcealment, and openness. Whether, for Jacob, the realisation occurred quite suddenly, or whether it was disclosed gradually over time, it is the openness that is of significance here. Romano (2015) maintains that events, considered phenomenologically, are open to the possibilities they hold, ‘making them into something that disrupts the worlds [and] individual[s] … giving it its load of possibilities and hence its future … events reconfigure my world’ (50–51). While there are many possibilities open to Jacob, it is through this event that he now realises he has already experienced God’s grace as a gift that has transformed his life (Emmons et al. 2017; Judd, Dyer, and Top 2020). Having experienced God’s grace, he can now take this grace into a future that may be full of hope (Braun-Lewensohn, Abu-Kaf, and Kalagy 2021; Sain 2020).

‘Possibilization’ (reinterpretation) – the texts of Millie and Sandra

The phenomenological text of two of the focus group participants, Millie and Sandra, reflected another of Romano’s (2015) evential concepts, that of ‘possibilization’.

Millie’s attendance at a funeral held on Zoom enabled her to experience God’s grace. ‘My grandmother passed away during the lockdown. The family lives in Sydney, and of course, we couldn’t go to the funeral. But I did feel God’s grace in being able to participate in the funeral service by Zoom’. Although she was able to articulate this, it was clear from the expression on her face and in the tone of her voice that experiencing God’s grace through a virtual platform had come as something of a surprise to her. This was novel—a new and innovative way of experiencing the sacred through the secular, through the profane. It presented a new possibility for her. ‘It brought a sense of closure and celebration of her life in a much stronger way than I thought it would’, she continued. ‘Having that sort of technology can be really quite powerful—I hadn’t considered feeling or experiencing God’s grace through that type of medium before’. And then, almost as if to herself in contemplation, she quietly added, ‘The possibilities of using technology in this way are quite incredible, really, when you come to think about it!’

In a similar way, Sandra’s text also suggests the possibilities presented to her through the experience of her event.

For Sandra, the act of walking through the local cemetery during the lockdown provided a source of hope. ‘Walking through the cemetery gave me hope’, she maintained. ‘It might sound strange and morbid’, she continued, ‘But it reminded me that life goes on, and that life has always gone on—it just looks different right now in the midst of a pandemic’. She reflected for a moment on this insight. One could sense that this was perhaps the first time that she had voiced this idea, and the event of walking through the cemetery bought with it an array of possibilities for providing hope. ‘It reminded me that for hundreds of years, people have lived through things like this—pandemics, natural disasters and stuff like that. And yet life goes on … it is possible to get through this. There is a real sense of hope in that’.

In arguing that events pertain not to actuality, but rather to possibility, Romano (2015) maintains that an event is something that ‘lies in reserve in every fact and every actualisation’ (51). As such, an event should be considered in relation to possibility, since possibility holds the power to ‘reconfigure my world’ (51, italics in the original), to ‘open up radically new [worlds], and correlatively close down old ones – that is in each instance, to possibilize them’ (52). Thus, an event is burgeoning with an array of possible meanings for those who experience them.

Such possibility can be seen in the phenomenological texts of Millie and Sandra. Millie is astonished that she was able to experience God’s grace through the virtual platform of Zoom. For her, this was novel and innovative, and presented new possibilities for her. As an event that was best grasped in its latency, Mille was able to envision the new possibilities in terms of the way in which God’s grace might be experienced, and this provided her with a renewed sense of hope. This opened a new world for her. She would not previously have expected to experience grace and hope through a funeral or an online platform. But the realisation of this possibility reconfigures her world and impacts positively on her wellbeing (Harwood et al. 2021). As she herself says, ‘The possibilities of using technology in this way are quite incredible, really, when you come to think about it!’ With this new realisation, arising from this event, there is a sense in which ‘things will never be as they were before’ (Romano 2015, 51). The event has opened for Millie a new world in which God’s grace and hope can be experienced in an online mode. This possibly has emerged from ‘the event’s very upsurge’ (51). That is, such a possibility has opened and announced itself starting with the event. It originates from the event and confers evential meaning for Millie herself. Through it, Millie can use this event as a source of personal strength and hope for the future (Braun-Lewensohn, Abu-Kaf, and Kalagy 2021).

Similarly, for Sandra, the event of walking through the cemetery bought with it an array of possibilities for providing hope, and to an extent, this reconfigured her world – or at least her worldview. The significance of this event was realised in the gradual unfolding of its latency. After this event, she realised that throughout history, people have managed to deal with an negotiate the terrain of pandemics and other natural disasters that have befallen them. Walking through the cemetery and seeing the engraved headstones, with dates preceding her own life helped to realise that ‘People have lived through things like this … And yet life goes on … it is possible to get through this’. The possibility of ‘getting through this’ opened and announced itself starting with the event. It reconfigured her worldview in that she has discovered a new way in which to see and understand the unprecedented occurrence of the pandemic. Instead of viewing this as an apocalyptic episode, she now sees it as one of many catastrophes and misfortunes that have transpired throughout history that people have managed to survive, and this provides for Sandra a great source of hope for the future (Sain 2020). She too will survive!

Conclusion

We found drawing on Romano’s notion of evential phenomenology as an insight cultivator assisted us in bringing into nearness the originary, the eidetic insights of the lived experiences of the three participants from our focus group. Romano’s notion of latency helped us understand how Jacob, Millie and Sandra experienced the event of grace when it occurred as they were able to face and ‘appropriate’ it through the experience (Romano 2009). This highlights that the significance of an event is often acquired in the gradual unfolding of its latency. It emphasises that events pertain not to actuality, to factum, but rather to possibility, and that possibility opens new worlds – and in some cases, disrupts worlds (Romano 2015) – for those who experience them. Of course, these insights are not exhaustive or conclusive. Rather, they call for further exploration into the ways in which people belonging to Christian Church communities may have experienced hope and grace – as events – during the pandemic.

What does emanate from the phenomenological texts of this paper, is that it is possible to experience hope and grace in unexpected ways, and in unexpected places, during global catastrophes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. While this is perhaps not surprising, it does reflect the notion of Ignatian spirituality which is underpinned by a theology of grace in which God can be found and experienced in all things, including a global pandemic.

Given that two of the phenomenological texts brought to the fore the possibility of online spaces as one in which God’s grace and hope may be experienced, it may be valuable to explore how online forms of ministry might be incorporated into to fabric of parish life that still meets the spiritual needs of parishioners and enhance their sense of belonging. From our wider study we found that online and virtual technologies may provide innovative, and perhaps unexpected means by which to address the pastoral needs of the community (Hyde and Joseph 2023).

It may also be valuable to provide avenues in which parishioners could share their experiences of grace and hope that occurred during the pandemic. As shown in this paper, such experiences may have taken place in unexpected or surprising locations. Sharing these within the community may help to affirm the experiences of other parishioners during this challenging time.

As rich as the phenomenological reflections are, this paper does have some limitations. The evential moments that have been analysed reflect the experiences of participants from Christian faith communities, and so generalisations to other non-Christian faith communities cannot be made. However, this presents a possibility for further research. As well, the participants in our focus group were all aged between 20 and 35, and it could be argued that this younger age group may have a more optimistic outlook on life as compared to members of Christian congregations who are older.

Nonetheless, reflection on the phenomenological texts presented in this paper affirm that hope and God’s grace are gifts that have already given through events experienced, the significance of which are often understood only after they had occurred. Hope and grace have the capacity to enhance and improve human flourishing in profound ways and may provide a sense of optimism that impacts positively on wellbeing.

Ethical approval

Human Ethics Advisory Group, Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University (Ethics approval number: HAE-21-161).

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Elizabeth Culhane, our research assistant for contributing to the wider study that has informed this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the Australian Research Theology Foundation incorporated (ARTFinc), no grant number.

Notes on contributors

Brendan Hyde

Brendan Hyde is Senior Lecturer in Education (Pedagogy and Curriculum) at the Melbourne Burwood Campus of Deakin University. He has research interests in phenomenology and how this might be used to enhance sensitivities to the lived experiences of teachers and students, particularly in relation to children’s spirituality and Godly Play (an approach to religious education with young children). He has published widely using the phenomenological method.

Dawn Joseph

Dawn Joseph is Associate professor in the School of Education at Deakin University. She is a member of the editorial boards of international and national refereed journals. Her research and publications focus on teacher education, music education, community music, African music, cultural diversity, and aging and wellbeing in the Arts.